Last year we got a new washer and dryer. We’d had a Maytag Neptune, and one of the features I really liked about that set was that the washer and dryer were synced. Which meant that if you saved all of your laundry for one day of the week (horrors!), the dryer was synced to finish it’s cycle at the very least, at the same time as the dryer. Depending upon what was inside, it might even have been faster.
I didn’t think about this option when we purchased our new machines. Since the Neptunes were almost a decade old, I figured this new-fangled technology was everywhere now. I was wrong. Or so I thought.
Our new dryer had been slowing down the past few weeks. It seemed to take forever to dry a load of laundry. And no, Robert, I did not overstuff it! This thing is brand new, it can certainly take whatever I’m stuffing inside of it; I promise they’re harder on it at quality control than I am in Scottsdale.
Anyway, I called the repair people last week, they sent a technician out this past Monday. She (yes, SHE) was wonderful. Said it wasn’t the dryer. Said that the vent leading away from the house needed to be cleaned. That the dryer wasn’t getting any air circulation, so it was pretty much just steaming my clothing, for hours. Seriously, it took the dryer over 3 hours to dry a load two weeks ago. Told me to call Dryer Vent Wizard. And yes, I did hear a trumpet in my head every time I said the name of this company.
They came out on Wednesday, did their thing. Which basically means they climbed onto the roof and sucked out 30 years of lint from the dryer vent tube, and went on their merry way.
I did laundry last night. The dryer was finished BEFORE the washing machine was finished with the next load. WOO HOO! Energy efficiency has been reached. My poor dryer has been hacking away and it took me so long to notice. I’m sorry Dryer. Don’t hate me.
Moral of this story: If you haven’t had your dryer vent (to the outside of your house) cleaned out in a long time, it might be worth the $100 to do so. Faster drying cycle = less energy used = lower electric/gas bill.
Ta da!
I was curious which Neptune you had because the older Neptunes, such as the 2000 Stackers, MAH3000, MAH4000 and the MAH5500A series had some issues which I am sure Maytag has corrected these issues in the newer machines…
There are thousands of Maytag Neptune owners who have been burnt by the door latch wax motor failure. What happens is the machine will stop spinning because the door latch will fail to lock. Deep inside it is caused by the mechanism that locks the door. The wax motor will draw too much current and damage the control board by burning a resistor (R11) and a triac (Q6).
However, if Neptune owners know to replace the door latch wax motor they can prevent the control board failure from happening. Please tell everyone you know about this important fact.
The older Neptune’s also have a couple additional issues such as the moldy door boot and the reliability of the motor / motor control board. All three of these issues were involved in the class action lawsuit a couple of years ago. See http://www.neptunewaxmotor.com for more Neptune information.
In addition, I just now started offering a bearing and seal kit for the Neptunes because when the bearings fail Maytag wants you to replace the whole outer tub for a service quote of around $900 or so. Why replace the whole outer tub? Just replace the worn bearings and 12002022 seal… See http://www.neptunebearing.com for the Neptune bearing kit information.
The older Neptunes run great once you take care of some small details…